Cultivation Corner

by Richo Cech

American wild yam (Dioscorea villosa or D. quaternata) is native to the Central and Eastern United States, from Minnesota south to Texas and across to the Atlantic States, excluding the states of northern New England. In northern areas, it can be grown very successfully in a greenhouse, as the plants prefer filtered light and warm, moist conditions. In southern states or on the western seaboard and California, wild yam may be readily propagated outdoors. It prefers a site in open woodlands or at the edge of the forest, where there is partial sun exposure, and where there are small trees and brush for the vines to climb.

By Richo Cech

This is an excerpt from Richo’s book,Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs.
Notes on American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.)…As long as the minimum requirements of appropriate temperature, soil and shade are met, some success in cultivating ginseng outside its native range is a reasonable expectation. For example, west of the Rockies the states of Oregon and Washington have proven fertile ground for both home-based gardening and large-scale farming of ginseng. Canada, with its cold winters and dry climate rates third in world production of ginseng. Agriculture and Agri-food Canada reports that over 5,000 acres of American Ginseng were under shade cultivation in Canada in 1996, with production areas concentrated in southwestern Ontario and British Columbia. The majority of cultivated ginseng finds its way to Asian markets, but in a strange twist we have now begun to see Chinese-grown American ginseng entering the U.S. markets. Finally and perhaps most surprisingly, there is a solid and functional group of Australians that are growing Ginseng “down-under” and finding local markets for their products, both fresh and dried.

by Richo Cech

The root of gentian stimulates the salivary glands and the digestion, while the flowers of this fantastic plant have long excited the gardener and the alpine hiker. The genus Gentiana is extremely diverse, represented by over 200 distinct species worldwide. The plants are distributed globally, mainly occurring in alpine regions. In North America there are 33 recognized species. These include such diverse plants as alpine gentian (G. newberryi), a pale blue flowered, mat-forming plant growing at altitudes up to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) in the Sierra Nevada of the western states, and the wiregrass gentian (G. pennelliana) that is endemic to Florida and is listed as an endangered species. Despite the wide distribution of gentian as a whole, the individual species do not tend to migrate, but rather stay put in specific ecological niches where conditions are perfectly to their liking. This specificity of conditions (elevation, sun, soil and moisture) makes domestication of wild gentians very challenging.

by Deb Soule

In the early 1980's while studying the native medicinal plants of North Carolina, I first met Black Cohosh growing wild in the Appalachian Mountains. Its 4-5 foot tall white flowering spires (racemes) were stunning to come upon in the deciduous forests. I immediately took a liking to this plant. A few years later I transplanted two young plants into my garden. Fifteen years later these plants have spread by roots to fill a 13-foot by 15-foot area with over 100 flowering racemes.

by Michael Pilarski

Most of us are familiar with the smell of burning white sage smudge sticks – a Native American tradition which has spread far and wide.  What percentage of the smudge sticks are wild crafted and what percentage are from cultivated sources?  How many people are growing white sage to relieve pressure on the wild stands?  I don’t know the answer, but suspect that almost all of it is wild crafted.

Venus Fly Trap, Dionaea muscipula, Family–Droseraceae, is an endemic, perennial, insectivorous plant of the southeast coastal plain of North and South Carolina. The following information is condensed from “Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs” by Richo Cech.

Range, hardiness and adaptability.

Venus Fly Trap is native to a very localized range in the Outer Coastal Plain and Sandhill regions within a 100-mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina. The largest extant concentration, probably comprising 50% of the remaining wild population, is located on Holly Shelter Game Reserve near Wilmington. The plant has been transplanted and naturalized to the wilds of the New Jersey pine barrens and also to the Appalachicola National Forest of the Florida panhandle.